FRIES, one of Germany’s leading wholesalers of wood and floor coverings has taken logistics at its Kiel HQ to the next level. By installing a storage platform, the company can now make full use of the ceiling height in the existing hall.
The result is a usable area of around 270sq m on the second level, at a height of 3.8m, where bulky pallets of insulation material are stored in blocks. This created space for a new work area, thereby avoiding the need to construct an additional hall.
Measuring 2.4m high with a volume of 3.5 cubic metres, the pallets containing the insulation material posed a challenge in terms of storage, not because of their weight but because of their dimensions. Previously, FRIES stored the pallets in a cantilever racking system whose cantilevers were designed for 2m panels, which significantly limited storage capacity.
FRIES therefore decided to add a second level to the existing hall, thereby significantly expanding the storage capacity for insulation material and improving storage conditions. The flexibility of this freestanding steel structure allows it to be easily adapted to individual requirements on-site.
OHRA designed a storage platform in which the payload and the positioning of the stairs and the goods transfer point were individually adapted to the conditions in the existing hall. The storage platform itself offers an area measuring 33.8m x 8m, with a load capacity of 1,000 kilograms per square metre – more than enough for storing the relatively light insulation pallets. The platform supports are arranged in a 5m x 4m grid, with a clearance height of 3.5m between the floor and the bottom edge of the structure, creating a spacious, flexible workspace underneath the platform. The floor covering of the platform consists of chipboard panels with a white lacquered underside.
Together with good lighting and generous headroom, this provides a comfortable, pleasant working space for employees working under the platform. This means that space utilisation in the FRIES hall has truly reached a new level. The storage platform made it possible to create an additional work area without having to build a new hall. The storage capacity gained on the stage area is used as efficiently as possible in the form of block storage. The old cantilever racking is still in use and is now used to store goods that need to be accessed individually and are therefore not suitable for block storage.
